On baby bust, feminism and male resentment. [Patreon Exclusive] Alex and regular contributor Leigh Phillips call up Korean sociologist Hyeyoung Woo, director of the Institute for Asian Studies at Portland State University, to talk about demography, family and gender in the Republic of Korea. How urgent is the national debate on fertility? What poli…

On the electricity grid and the institutions involved. [Patreon Exclusive] Fred Stafford, a STEM professional, a writer on energy and power, and an editor at Damage, talks to Alex and regular contributor Leigh Phillips about the utility of utilities and his recent essay in the second print issue of Damage, "Deinstitutionalized". What actually is a …

On German political derangement. [Patreon Exclusive] Independent researcher and writer Gregor Baszak joins us to talk about German centrism being squeezed under pressure from both left and right — Sahra Wagenknecht and the AFD. Meanwhile the German economy is getting squeezed between the US and Russia, and NATO pressures Germany to up its defence s…

On the one-year anniversary of the death of our evil patron saint, Silvio Berlusconi, we are re-releasing our audio obituary. RIP Silvio. Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi died on 12 June 2023 at the age of 86. In this special episode, we say goodbye to the towering figure of the End of History, and explore how the contradictions he e…

On India's election and a blow for the BJP. Esteemed writer and social activist Achin Vanaik is back on Bungacast to unpick India's monumental, seven-week-long electoral process in which over 600m people took part. How did the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP lose its majority? Is there really a cult of personality around Modi? How does the BJP differ …

On your questions & criticism regarding pro-Palestine protests. [Patreon Exclusive] In this episode we focus on the discussion generated by our episode that came out in early May on the protests on US campuses. We discuss the issues along a few axes: How do ideas of victimhood relate to the material reality of international politics? What really ar…

On MORENA and Claudia Sheinbaum's huge victory. Mexico has elected its first woman president, tasked with extending the hugely popular AMLO'S legacy. What are her prospects and challenges? We ask: What was the effect of NAFTA on Mexico, and particularly manufacturing? How is US-China competition playing out in Mexico? Why did Trump and leftist AMLO…

On Zone of Interest and Holocaust film. [Patreon Exclusive] We discuss the winner of the Oscar for Best International Feature Film – one that split opinion, among critics and on the pod too! How does the film fit in the pantheon of Holocaust films? Is it a Holocaust film? How well does it deal with its obvious subject matter: the banality of evil? …

On Mexico's elections. [Patreon Exclusive] Mexico goes to the polls this Sunday with the ruling centre-left MORENA party holding a commanding lead. Anthropologist Roger Lancaster joins us to preview the election and look at outgoing President AMLO's record. What are the stakes in this election? Has Mexico bucked the trend of class realignment? Wher…

On Futuromania and closing and opening of musical horizons. We talk to renowned music critic Simon Reynolds about his new book. A counterpart of sorts to his famous Retromania (2011), Futuromania looks at the exciting futuristic music of the past and present. We discuss its themes to try understand whether the culture is still about to throw up som…

On Alex Garland’s new film, Civil War. [Patreon Exclusive] The boys discuss a film that seems designed to say something in the context of a US election year. But what? We ask: What kind of film is this: a dystopian fantasy, a war movie, a road movie? Why the focus on the media? Does the film celebrate or satirise journalists? Does Garland’s dystopi…

On Isaac Deutscher's classic Stalin: A Political Biography. [Patreon Tier III & IV Exclusive] We start off dealing with your questions from the first two Reading Clubs of the year, before Phil takes us through the famous biography of the Soviet leader. We discuss: Deutscher's work in historical context Stalin’s parents' experience as serfs and the …

On US campus protest, the brutalisation of Gaza, and whether this is an age of war. Alex, George and Phil debate the matter of the day. We ask: Is the police repression and associated censorship (the anti-semitism bill) a reflection of the fact the content of the protest unsettles the establishment? Why? Why is the Left breaking with Biden and the …

On the earth-shaking events of the 20th century, through a personal lens. [This is the full episode, for subscribers only. Paywalled section begins at 01:14:16] Regular contributor Alex Gourevitch sits down with political scientist Peter Gourevitch to talk about their shared family history. Why did their grandparents/great-grandparents become Mensh…

On saving society from the antisocial-ists. In partnership with Damage magazine. [Patreon Exclusive] Trade unionist and researcher Dustin "Dino" Guastella joins us to talk about the deficiencies of a libertarian or antinomian approach to social problems. We start off with Dino telling us about the Teamsters union, before moving on to: How have Amer…

On Euro censorship + your comments and criticisms. [Patreon Exclusive] We discuss censorship in Brussels and Berlin, and put it in the context of the incorporation of right-populism. How will European politics come to look as national-conservatives become part of the establishment? What's up with these "sovereigntists" who are unserious about sover…

On the Big Hard Dick industry. [Patreon Exclusive] Clinicians and Damage authors & editors, Christie and Benjamin, tell us why the market for penis enlargement and hardness has exploded. What is the "penis anxiety industry" How does it serve individual, cultural and unconscious demands? How does 'Big Hard Dick' provide a brittle solution to a deep …

On melodrama and the bourgeois subject. [Patreon Exclusive] We're back with the next installment of our series on the "emotional turn". Alex talks to Catherine Liu about whether politics is staged in a "melodramatic" fashion today. What is the bourgeois subject, why was it good, and where did it go? What is melodrama? Does public crying make us fee…

On A New Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Deliberative Politics Continuing our theme of "the intelligentsia & the public," we discuss German critical theorist Jürgen Habermas's 2023 book, asking what sort of political culture is required for democracy. What role do the institutions of the public sphere and the media have in produc…

On President AMLO and rebuilding the working class. [Patreon Exclusive] We continue our discussion with anthropologist Roger Lancaster who has lived and researched in Mexico for decades, on the past and present of Mexican radicalism. How has popular conservatism served as a boost for radicalism and revolution Is there any basis for a 'romantic' ant…

On Mexico, class, and sexuality. We welcome anthropologist Roger Lancaster onto the pod to talk about his new book, The Struggle to Be Gay – in Mexico, for Example. We discuss: How much is being gay tied to being modern? And conversely, how much of globalized culture is itself "gay"? Do you need to be middle class to be gay? Why did neoliberalism p…

On democratic planning. [An old episode from January 2019 – we're re-uploading it because it's good, and also to complete our new 'Collections' on Patreon] Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski propose we look at Walmart and other giant corporations as sites of planning, not of markets -- and that this fact proves planning works. Rather than rely on …

On what comes next: in politics, ideas, economy, subjectivity To commemorate seven years of the podcast and four-hundred episodes, we got all our new Contributors in to examine the oppositions and tensions that we think will characterise the next decade. We say hello to Amber A'Lee Frost, Alex Gourevitch, Catherine Liu, and Leigh Phillips. For all …

On the withdrawal from hyperpolitics and hypermodernity. What comes after a decade of populism? Alex Hochuli talks through his essay in the forthcoming second issue of Damage magazine. This is episode is the third part of our Emotion Sickness series on the politics of feelings. Click here for part 1 and part 2. If we are disengaging from politics, …

Part II of the series: on therapy and vulnerability. Sociologist Ashley Frawley (and COO of Sublation Press) is back on the podcast to talk about her new book, Significant Emotions. What is behind the seeming rise of public emotionalism and the focus on mental health? How was “happiness” a policy concern – and when did it disappear and why? What’s …

On Benedict Anderson's classic Imagined Communities. Originally published in 1983, Anderson's account of the origins of nations is one of the most cited books in English in the humanities. In what ways does this diverse and inventive book still explain the world? How is imagined different from imaginary? Did nations emerge first in Latin America? D…

On Portugal's elections, 50 years since the revolution Catarina Príncipe, a long-time activist on the Portuguese left and a doctoral student of political economy, is back on the podcast to talk through what happened as Portugal went to the polls, and the Right won again in Europe. How does Portugal see itself, with regard to Europe, and its own his…

On media and the Millennial Left. [Patreon Exclusive] Continuing the retrospective on the millennial left's failures, we invite political theorist Benjamin Studebaker back on. We discuss: Was left-populism a media event? Was the Millennial Left just a moment in internet history? Having bought into the internet's possibilities, can we abandon it? Do…

On Zoomer gender and politics. Young women and young men are voting very different from each other – and this is happening across very different countries, from the UK to Tunisia to South Korea to Brazil. Why is there this crossover between gender and ideology? Have women become more 'progressive' as they've gained equality? Are young men staging a…

On the politics of emotions and emotionalism. Philosopher Nina Power (an editor and columnist at Compact Magazine) kicks off this series by talking to us about anger, hate, and evil. Do we complain too little or too much? Should we be more repressed? Political passions were meant to be dead. Has anger overtaken apathy? Should we hate our enemies? I…

On Indonesia's new president and the End of History. Michael Vann, Indonesia expert and history professor at Sacramento State, joins us to talk through the election results. How did Prabowo go from wannabe fascist dictator to cuddly populist grandpa? Why is Jokowi "Indonesia's Obama"? What is Indonesia's Trump/Hunter Biden ticket? What's up with th…

On our '1914 vibes'. And your questions & comments. We discuss the parallels between our age (the end of globalisation, the threat of war) with the end of the Belle Epoque in the early 20th century. What might Lenin have to teach us? We then turn to your questions and comments on: Palestinians as surplus population Peripheral countries as 'imitator…

On Indonesia: a country without a Left. Foremost scholar of Indonesian politics and political economy, Vedi Hadiz of the University of Melbourne, joins us to talk through the country's politics in advance of the elections next week. What was the authoritarian order that followed the 1965 anti-communist massacres? How did the Asian financial crisis …

On security and democracy in Latin America. [Patreon Exclusive] We continue our conversation with Juan Rojas, Latin America columnist at Compact Magazine, by looking at how the 'Bukele model' would work – and not work – across the region: Ecuador, Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, and beyond. There is less and less support for democracy in Latin Ameri…

On El Salvador and mass incarceration. Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's president, has just been re-elected on a landslide. His trademark policy is a state of emergency and the locking-up of tens of thousands of suspected gang members. He also made Bitcoin legal tender. What is 'Bukelismo', will it last, and will it spread? First, we talk to Nelson Raud…

On how to respond to conformity. Lias Saoudi, frontman of the British band Fat White Family, joins us to talk about rock, popular culture and contemporary unfreedom. We discuss: Why are the kids taking less drugs? Can we respond to our nihilistic times with nihilistic art? What is the nature of conformity today? How to challenge conformity without …

Double episode! On Giovanni Arrighi's Adam Smith in Beijing. [Patreon Tier II & III Exclusive] We wrap up the 2023 syllabus by taking on the second half of Arrighi's book, in which he analyses the over-reach and decline of the US empire, and whether China's rise and role in world affairs presents a different model, one that might be more peaceful. …

On the World Economic Forum. We continue our talk on the US left and Amber fills us in on DSA's collapse and the resignation of its head. We then move onto Davos and indications that the WEF is moving away from DEI, ESG, and other left-liberal concerns. Javier Milei gave a speech saying the West was in danger, that socialism was coming in the back …

On Dirtbag and the Millennial Left. Bungacast regular Amber A'Lee Frost is back to talk about her new book, Dirtbag — part memoir, part critical essays on millennial socialism. In this episode we discuss: Why "millennial"? Does it make sense to talk in generational terms? What are the left's "perversions" as Amber sees them? 'Occupy' was all leader…

On what comes after human rights. Juliano Fiori, essayist and director of Alameda Institute, joins us to talk about catastrophism and organising around "the end". We discuss: What was humanitarianism, and why was it the "last utopia"? What does humanitarianism look like in an era of multipolarity? Does Western liberal democracy have any gas left in…

On the missed opportunity of the 2010s. [Patreon Exclusive] Chris Cutrone of Platypus joins us to talk about his collection of essays, The Death of the Millennial Left. We discuss: Why define it as the "Millennial" Left? Was the anti-Stalinism of leaderless protests a good thing? Did the talk of "winning" from 2015 onwards represent maturity? Shoul…

On contemporary art. Critic and editor at Art Review, JJ Charlesworth, joins us to talk about why so much contemporary art is bad. We discuss: Why is art no longer about beauty? Are we stuck between art that is either superficial or hyperpolitical? Why has there been a turn towards the mystical and irrational in art? How are ideas of the indigenous…

On Ridley Scott's Napoleon. [Patreon Exclusive] We couldn't avoid discussing the new biopic about the "world soul" himself, Napoleon Bonaparte. The film isn't great, but what can we learn from it? And how does it sit in a context in which most biopics today are about musicians, business leaders and scientists? We discuss: Why did Scott choose to fo…

On taking control. The Netherlands has elected an anti-EU rightist, but he won't take the Netherlands out of the European Union. Britain left the EU, but net migration to the UK has soared to its highest levels. What's going on? In this special episode, Alex treats Phil and George as interview guests and grills them over their book, Taking Control:…

On Giovanni Arrighi's Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the 21st Century [Patreon Tier II & III Exclusive] We discuss the Part 2 of this landmark book from 2008, debating theories of Western economic decline: Robert Brenner's, and Arrighi's critique of it. Points discussed: Are you 'Team Brenner' or 'Team Arrighi'? Was neoliberalism a counter-revo…

On Australia's lockdown. We welcome back Shahar Hameiri and Tom Chodor to talk about their new book, The Locked-Up Country, to try to learn some lessons from Australia's response to Covid-19. We also talk about the country's recent Indigenous Voice referendum and ask whether it was Oz's "Brexit Moment". In the episode we ask: Was the pandemic anoth…

On your criticisms. [Patreon Exclusive] We respond to your points made in the comments on Patreon over the past few months. The first section is of course dedicated to the Gaza war, followed by discussion on hyperliberalism, neutrality, big tech, outsourcing, and drugs. Now available also as video on Patreon.…

On John Gray's The New Leviathans. [Patreon Exclusive] We discuss the British post-liberal philosopher's new book, looking at his background, ideological journey, and why he might be of interest. We also ask: How does John Gray use Hobbes and the idea of a Leviathan? What is a "state of nature", and what would an artificial state of nature be? Is G…

On a decade of protest around the world. Journalist Vincent Bevins is back on the podcast to talk about his new book, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution. We discuss the 2010s protest wave across countries as varied as Egypt, Turkey, Brazil, Ukraine, Hong Kong, Chile, Bahrain, Yemen, South Korea and Tunisia. We ask: Why w…

On NATO expansion and the end of neutrality [Patreon Exclusive] Lily Lynch is back on the pod to talk about Northern and Eastern Europe and growing hawkishness. We discuss: Why did Sweden and Finland give up decades of neutrality - and why now? What happens with an enlarged alliance in light of the conflict in Ukraine? How does the current moment c…